People favor international charities and forget local causes

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Staff Editorial

At CSH, it is always a noble cause. Whether it’s earthquake relief for Haiti, tsunami relief for Japan, or a sister school in Uganda. We have countless bake sales, book drives, paid free dress days and other fundraisers to support international charities.

Due to the international strength and focus of the Sacred Heart Network it’s hard to remember that there are causes right in our own community that would appreciate some raised funds.

NICOLE HVID | The Broadview

In San Francisco, 197,000 people struggle to feed themselves and their families every day, and one in five children do not have enough food to grow properly according to the San Francisco Food Bank. It seems that at school we totally bypass the hunger that is striking our own community to buy toiletries for foreign —albeit just as important—communities more than a little bit outside city jurisdiction.

It’s a misconception order to make a difference, someone needs to go big, or go global. Most people seem to think that shipping children’s books off to Tanzania is the only way to fulfill Sacred Heart Goal 3.

While book drives for Tanzanian children is indeed a very noble and just cause, its “glamour” always outshines the book drives that are necessary for less fortunate schools here in San Francisco.

Last week, when Invisible Children’s social media push flooded all of our news feeds we couldn’t help but think how cool it was that these African children were getting some much needed attention. We also couldn’t help but notice how lame it was that there are San Franciscan children, even California children, who aren’t getting the attention they need or deserve.

We need to revert our city’s attention back to the little things. Maybe the illiteracy rate of elementary school children in some San Francisco public schools isn’t as glamorous as rescuing people from a military dictator, but it makes just as big of a difference.

This doesn’t mean that we have to stop supporting international causes that mean a lot to us, we should be able to support both. Maybe we should hold a walk to support the San Francisco Food Bank as well as the Walk for Uganda. Maybe we should talk more about ways to get involved in our own community as well as start introducing ways to get involved in the international community. We need to be active members of both.

Gabriella Vulakh is a junior and Web Editor of The Broadview. This past summer she attended a New York Times student journalism program where she worked closely with professional reporters. Outside of the publi...

Olivia Mohun is a third-year staff member and Features Editor for The Broadview. While not writing in the Pub Lab, Olivia can be found out on the San Francisco Bay with her sailing team or leading Mod...